1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic cash register which is located in various stores to register sales information, such as a sales total of goods.
2. Description of Related Art
In a large scale store, such as a department store or a supermarket, a plurality of electronic cash registers (hereinafter "ECR") are located. The prices and the numbers of goods a customer has bought are entered through a keyboard in each ECR, and the ECR displays and registers sales data. After registration of all goods the customer has bought is complete, the ECR performs finalizing and issues a receipt so that the customer pays the charges of the goods. In this manner, one registration procedure is completed.
In choosing one of the ECRs to pay the price of the goods to buy, a customer checks the number of other customers who are waiting in front of check out lanes, (i.e., table counters), which are located in the vicinity of the respective ECRs in order to look for the ECR with the smallest number of customers waiting for payment, and pays the prices of the goods he or she wants to buy.
Customarily, to judge which ECR has the minimum number of customers waiting to pay the prices, a customer observes visually the number of customers waiting in front of each ECR and compares the numbers of the customers in each line. Hence, from a distance, it is difficult to compare the number of customers at all the ECRs and find an ECR with the least customers waiting.